U.S. Investigating Car Crash Death of DEA Secretary

WASHINGTON — The United States is investigating the death of a secretary at the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Guadalajara, Mexico, who died in a weekend car crash, officials said Monday.

The death of Susan Hoefler, 32, who was employed in the same office where DEA agent Victor Cortez Jr. worked before he was allegedly abducted and tortured last week by Jalisco state police, occurred Saturday night, an agency spokesman said.

U.S. authorities, already investigating the Cortez incident, will examine whether there was any foul play involved in Hoefler's death, a Justice Department official said.

But a Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman said that investigators have "no reason to suspect the car crash was anything more than an accident."

Hoefler handled contracts for such things as purchases and outside work done for the agency, the spokesman said. She was en route to the airport to pick up another DEA secretary returning from vacation when she apparently lost control of her car, ran into a utility pole and was killed.